Difference between revisions of "MAME"

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[[File:MAME.png|right|thumb|336px|MAME running ''[[Space Harrier]]''.]]
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[[File:MAME.png|right|thumb|336px|MAME running ''[[Vectorman 2]]'' with an adjusted crt-geom-deluxe shader, for color blending.]]
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'''MAME''', or '''Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator''', is, as the name suggests, a program that is capable of emulating multiple types of arcade machine. Unlike home video game consoles or even computers, arcade machines often have hardware that is devoted to only running one specific game. The MAME project, which began its life in February 1997, attempts to emulate every arcade machine known to man.
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'''MAME''' is an open emulation project which supports a wide range of machines, including arcade games and consoles. It can emulate CPU-based games as well as those based on [[:Category:Discrete logic arcade games‏‎|discrete logic circuits]], and has varying degrees of support for almost all [[Sega]] arcade systems and many of their consoles.
  
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The MAME development team opts for emulation accuracy rather than optimisation, meaning computer specifications need to be high in order to run most recent games at full speed. Though MAME is often pixel perfect as a result of this philosophy, it is a controversial emulator, often forcing users to re-download ROM sets and requiring abnormally high specs to play some of the most simplest of games, such as ''Donkey Kong'' or ''Pac-Man'' at full speed. To make matters worse, some earlier versions of the emulator run games faster, as large samples of code are often re-written in an attempt to be more accurate, often breaking support in the short-term.
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Its core philosophy puts emulation accuracy before performance, at the expense of sometimes requiring higher computer specifications in comparison with other emulators which use shortcuts or "hacks" (such as not accurately reflecting what the hardware is doing in code or pre-calculating certain values so look up times are faster than they would otherwise be on the real hardware). It's often considered the best arcade emulator around because of its wide range of support, although emulation of certain [[Sega Model 2]] games is currently limited.
  
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MAME and its sister project [[MESS]] are separate applications, but are now developed and released from a single source repository. Anyone who downloads the complete source code from the project website can compile the parent project 'MAME ''(make)'', MESS ''(make TARGET=mess)'' or, of course, UME ''(make TARGET=ume)''.
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The MAME project, which began its life as "Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator" in February 1997, originally attempted to emulate every arcade machine known to man and had a sister project named MESS that did the same for consoles and home computers. In 2015, the MAME team integrated both MAME and MESS into a single, unified project (dropping the acronym and making "MAME" the actual name of the application), and one year later relicensed its code base to a more permissive free and open-source BSD/GPL license, which allowed its use in commercial projects such as Capcom Arcade Stadium.
  
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It does not emulate arcade games based on [[:Category:Discrete logic arcade games‏‎|discrete logic circuits]], but does have varying degrees of support for almost all [[Sega]] arcade systems after this period.
 
  
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MAME is often considered the best arcade emulator around because of its wide range of support. There are currently some exceptions, however. For example, support for [[Sega Model 2]] hardware is limited in MAME, and so users are better off with the [[Model 2 Emulator]].
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==Magazine articles==
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{{mainArticle|{{PAGENAME}}/Magazine articles}}
  
 
==External Link==
 
==External Link==
 
*[http://mamedev.org/ Official website]
 
*[http://mamedev.org/ Official website]
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*[https://github.com/mamedev/mame Official source repository]
  
 
[[Category:Emulation]]
 
[[Category:Emulation]]

Latest revision as of 15:33, 6 October 2021

MAME running Vectorman 2 with an adjusted crt-geom-deluxe shader, for color blending.

MAME is an open emulation project which supports a wide range of machines, including arcade games and consoles. It can emulate CPU-based games as well as those based on discrete logic circuits, and has varying degrees of support for almost all Sega arcade systems and many of their consoles.

Its core philosophy puts emulation accuracy before performance, at the expense of sometimes requiring higher computer specifications in comparison with other emulators which use shortcuts or "hacks" (such as not accurately reflecting what the hardware is doing in code or pre-calculating certain values so look up times are faster than they would otherwise be on the real hardware). It's often considered the best arcade emulator around because of its wide range of support, although emulation of certain Sega Model 2 games is currently limited.

The MAME project, which began its life as "Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator" in February 1997, originally attempted to emulate every arcade machine known to man and had a sister project named MESS that did the same for consoles and home computers. In 2015, the MAME team integrated both MAME and MESS into a single, unified project (dropping the acronym and making "MAME" the actual name of the application), and one year later relicensed its code base to a more permissive free and open-source BSD/GPL license, which allowed its use in commercial projects such as Capcom Arcade Stadium.


Magazine articles

Main article: MAME/Magazine articles.

External Link

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